{"id":41956,"date":"2018-12-24T12:54:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T17:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=41956"},"modified":"2018-12-24T12:54:04","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T17:54:04","slug":"carbon-crossroads-can-germany-revive-its-stalled-energy-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=41956","title":{"rendered":"Carbon Crossroads: Can Germany Revive Its Stalled Energy Transition?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A wind turbine operating next to the Niederaussem coal-fired power plant near Bergheim, Germany.<\/span> LUKAS SCHULZE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Carbon Crossroads: Can Germany Revive Its Stalled Energy Transition?<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Although Germany has been a global leader in moving to decarbonize its massive economy, the country\u2019s ambitious clean-energy transformation is faltering. Now, a broad spectrum of energy experts are working to revitalize the effort to make Germany nearly carbon-free by mid-century.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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Northern Germany, from the Polish borderlands in the east to the Netherlands in the west, is the stronghold of Germany\u2019s muscular onshore wind power industry. This is where the lion\u2019s share of the country\u2019s nearly 30,000 wind turbines<\/a> are sited, a combined force equal to the power generation of about 10 nuclear reactors. Where Germany\u2019s northernmost tip abuts Denmark, soaring turbines crowd the horizon as far as the eye can see. And many more are coming as Germany strives to go carbon neutral by 2050.<\/p>\n

Yet despite their impressive might, the north\u2019s wind parks are a reminder not only of how much has been accomplished in Germany\u2019s Energiewende<\/em>, or clean energy transition, but also of what remains to be done. Although the country has made a Herculean effort to shift to a clean energy economy \u2014 in just the past five years government support and costs to consumers have totaled an estimated 160 billion<\/a>euros ($181 billion) \u2014 Germany\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions have not declined as rapidly as expected in response to the vigorous expansion of renewable energy, which now generates 40 percent of the country\u2019s electricity. Germany\u2019s politicians are even resigned to falling significantly short of the country\u2019s 2020 goal of reducing emissions by 40 percent<\/a> below 1990 levels.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s failings have come as a vexing shock to its environmentally conscious citizenry. While Germans still overwhelmingly back the energy transition \u2014 for years polls<\/a> showed support in excess of 90 percent \u2014 about three-quarters<\/a> say the government is not doing enough to slow global warming.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A wind turbine operating next to the Niederaussem coal-fired power plant near Bergheim, Germany. LUKAS SCHULZE\/GETTY IMAGES Carbon Crossroads: Can Germany Revive Its Stalled Energy Transition? Although Germany has been a global leader in moving to decarbonize its massive economy, the country\u2019s ambitious clean-energy transformation is faltering. Now, a broad spectrum of energy experts are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[113,5930,328,359,386,23596,674,7163],"class_list":["post-41956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-carbon-emissions","tag-energy-transition","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-germany","tag-greenhouse-gases","tag-paul-hockenos","tag-renewable-energy","tag-yale-environment-360"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41957,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41956\/revisions\/41957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}